Posted on 01/04/2025 6:29:57 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
A host of new laws went into effect in California Wednesday, including a statewide minimum wage boost to $16.50 an hour. While that’s the new floor for hourly pay, many Bay Area cities have set their own mandatory wage rates that are above the state minimum — and workers in some of those cities will see their own bump in pay come Jan. 1. This means that a raise could now be just a town away.
According to the Bay Area Labor Center, some 25 local cities raised their minimum wages this year. Interestingly, a number of those cities sit directly next to (or at least in close proximity to) areas that pay a lower minimum wage. The widest discrepancy shows up near Oakland, where the minimum wage became $16.89 an hour on Jan. 1. In neighboring Emeryville, which pays the highest minimum wage in the Bay Area, it’s been $19.36 since July 2024. That’s a difference of nearly $2.50 an hour.
The same goes for workers who cross the bay from Oakland to San Francisco, where the hourly wage is $18.67. That’s nearly $1.50 per hour for commuting roughly 12 miles. And since Berkeley’s minimum wage matches SF’s, an Oakland-based worker could get that bump for going just 5 miles.
“There has ended up being a decent amount of variation, both within the state and in the Bay Area,” Ken Jacobs, a senior policy adviser with the Bay Area Labor Center.
Regardless of the rates paid, “It’s important to point out that none of [these minimum wages] are anywhere near what is a living wage in the Bay Area,” Jacobs said. Even as its housing market cools, the San Francisco metro area remains the priciest in the nation.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Minimum wage was never designed to be a “livable” wage. It was the entry wage for unskilled labor.
That being said, the true minimum wage is always zero.
There are also discrepencies in minimum wages at state borders. No big deal.
It will come with all kinds of legal baggage, like that you're only eligible for it until you reach some age.
In order to get it, your employer will be obliged to play for you an "orientation video," in which you'll be told how unfair the capitalist system is, and how many legal avenues you have to sue your boss. Your employer will be required to present this video to you every year.
At the end of the video, you'll be given the chance to register as a Democrat, and allowed to select a menu option that will ensure that your computer-generated straight-ticket Democrat ballot is generated for every future election in perpetuity.
Oh, and your employer will have to pay you while you listen to the video.
In addition to all its other Marxist benefits, sounds like this will also decrease the Bay Area’s famously terrible traffic congestion!
Oh, wait ...
$1.50 per hour for commuting roughly 12 miles
Let’s see toss in $8 for crossing the bay bridge, add in parking in downtown SF $10 that is $18 more per day expense for $12 more income.
I always lived close enough to walk to work in case the car broke down as commuting is unpaid overtime.
Calling in sick was more difficult if the bosses were driving around.
New laws went into effect in California Wednesday, including a statewide minimum wage boost to $16.50 an hour.
Another magnet for illegals atop welfare programs.
Fools do not understand that minimum is always the Minimum. Everything else just shifts to adjust.
There goes the price of Micky D’s burgers, again. They have learned nothing. They don’t give a rat’s behind for grandma on Soc Sec.
Do away with min. wage. Competition. You have skills then you get more than that DEI who seems to do nothing but sit in the corner on her phone.
add in parking in downtown SF $10
A few seconds search turns this up (and I was surprised how cheap parking in San Frannie is based on a trip to LA several years ago.
"Average prices offered by SpotHero include $20–$32 for commuter parking, $18–$35 for weekend parking, $20–$40 for event parking, and $30–$50 for overnight parking"
and
"Some areas have demand-responsive pricing, which can put parking rates over $10 per hour"
Being a DEI can be a high demand skill. It's the experienced white males that can't get jobs.
My wife and I went to a wedding in Cambridge MA (near MIT).
Parking was 50 bucks for twenty four hours (since we stayed overnight).
I had not visited any city in years (since I retired) so it was quite an eye opener.
The good news—none of my other young relatives live in cities.
:-)
Whenever I could, I’ve also preferred to walk or cycle to work, but lots of times that just wasn’t possible.
One of my shorter commutes was when I lived across the road from the mine gate, and I could walk about 200 feet to the hoist house, brass in, and ride the manlift about 800 feet straight down.
“That being said, the true minimum wage is always zero.”
It can also be said that the true minimum wage is the wage where you can’t find any workers to work at the pay you are offering.
Don’t agree? Try finding workers at $5 dollars an hour, you won’t have any takers.
The market ultimately sets the real minimum wage.
This is something that a lot of “conservatives” lose sight of.
I went to a conference at a hotel in uptown Dallas. On site parking was $45 a night. Company paid, but I still flinched.
“The market ultimately sets the real minimum wage.”
The black market ultimately sets the real minimum wage.
That is why most statistics on this topic are useless.
When Kennedy was shot, the minimum wage was $1.25 an hour. Gold was $35.25 / ounce. Today, gold is $2,640.00. On that basis, if the minimum wage was in real value equivalent to what it was when Kennedy was shot, it would be (rounded down) $93.61 / hour. (That's around $190,000 a year. That sounds like a livable wage to me).
“The black market ultimately sets the real minimum wage.”
The black market requires lots of “undocumented” workers.
These workers need government services to survive and they also suppress wages for American workers. A double hit to American workers/taxpayers.
You can park in SF for $10? I would've guessed more like $25 because signs in downtown Lexington, KY say park for $12.
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